Tear away or contact fastening systems are well known. Such systems incorporate two opposing segments of material which are engageable in substantially juxtaposed relation to one another. A male portion of such a contact fastening system typically incorporates a plurality of outwardly projecting hooking structures while the female portion incorporates a plurality of outwardly projecting loop structures. Upon engagement between the two cooperating portions the hooking structures engage the opposing loop structures thereby establishing a bond between the two opposing portions. This bond may be broken by the application of a peel away action between the two opposing portions of material thereby permitting the male and female portions to be progressively disengaged from one another. The engagement may be reactivated by simply bringing the male and female portions back into contacting laminar relation with one another.
In the past, the hook and loop structures defining the male and female portions of contact fastening systems have been formed by a variety of practices. According to one practice, a plurality of yarns forming the hooking and/or loop segments have been stitched through a polymeric film in a fully threaded tricot stitch to form loops projecting from a first surface of the film and to form locking portions of the stitches across a second opposite surface of the film. Such a construction is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,343 the teachings of which are incorporated by reference as is fully set forth herein. The hook portions which may be either of a classic hook configuration or which have an enlarged head which nonetheless engages the loop portion may be formed by first producing a loop portion of the material and thereafter either cutting the loops along one side to form the hooks or melting the upper portions of the loops to form projections with enlarged heads at their ends.